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State of the PC Industry – HP lays of 25,000
CNN Money: HP prepares to announce mass layoffs
https://money.cnn.com/2012/05/23/technology/hp-layoffs/index.htmThe company’s PC sales fell 15% during the holiday season, with consumer computer sales tumbling 25%.
While the decline is steeper in their consumer PCs, their entire PC sales is down.
It’s not alone. Dell, which faces similar struggles, reported Tuesday that the company’s lackluster PC sales dragged on its overall profit and revenue last quarter.
back to HP
That trend, of movement in the wrong direction, is expected to continue throughout the rest of 2012
None of this is specific to desktops but you might imagine it’s part of the picture. I’d guess (just a guess) that “consumer” desktops (non all in ones) suffer more than workstations.
For what it’s worth, Apple’s PC sales are doing well even if it’s not the big revenue the iPhone is.
From everything I’ve heard (Apple doesn’t break this out though), the lower selling Macs are 17″ MBP and certainly the MacPro. Both may be going away. I still hold that doesn’t mean “power” is going away.
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34 Replies
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[Craig Seeman] ” I still hold that doesn’t mean “power” is going away.
“How can you not? If you are unable to get a dual 12-core Xeon Ivy Bridge system with 32GB+ of RAM from Apple when such a combination certainly exists in other ecosystems, then how can you maintain that?
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Because Apple doesn’t have all the pieces together for their new system yet.
The next generation Thunderbolt controllers came out only about a month ago.Apple doesn’t announce hardware in advance. We may (or may not) know something at WWDC.
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[Craig Seeman] “Apple doesn’t announce hardware in advance. We may (or may not) know something at WWDC.”
I’m not sure I can agree with that. They often announce hardware weeks or in some cases months before it is shipping.
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Lenovo profits seem to be up.
https://www.engadget.com/2012/05/23/lenovo-annual-financial-report/
I imagine Acer and Ass are probably also doing well.
David
AllinOneFilms.com -
[Chris Harlan] “They often announce hardware weeks or in some cases months before it is shipping.”
Only if it is an all new product segment, like the iPhone in 2007 and the iPad in 2010. There hasn’t been a paper launch of a new Mac since maybe the original MacBook Air in January, 2008, and that was measured in days, not weeks or months. In recent years new Macs haven’t even had press events. They just show up on Apple’s site and in Apple’s stores. All the new-Macs hubbub comes from without, not from Apple.
Best,
Andy -
And all three have announced Thunderbolt support as well. I think they will continue to do well. Those that need to work in a cross platform environment will be able to maximize their investment (or be willing to make an investment) in Thunderbolt peripherals.
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[Andrew Richards] “[Chris Harlan] “They often announce hardware weeks or in some cases months before it is shipping.”
Only if it is an all new product segment, like the iPhone in 2007 and the iPad in 2010. There hasn’t been a paper launch of a new Mac since maybe the original MacBook Air in January, 2008, and that was measured in days, not weeks or months. In recent years new Macs haven’t even had press events. They just show up on Apple’s site and in Apple’s stores. All the new-Macs hubbub comes from without, not from Apple.
“Andy, there was a two week delay with this year’s iPad. And, I agree that with older lines they most often just refresh. But I was responding to “Apple doesn’t announce hardware in advance.” I just don’t think that you can predict those kind of things from Apple. If they want to tell you about Thunderbolt in advance, they will. They’ll talk about its eventual implementation long before it happens. And, they’ll drop saucy hints all over the place about things like Apple TV, for an entire year before its implemented. They just do it on their own terms, and with as little or as much info as suits them. What about the 17,000 well-placed mentions of “post-PC world” in the iPad release talk? I guess that could just be sales blather, but it seems to me that that was making a rather profound announcement about the general future of Apple hardware.
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[Craig Seeman] “And all three have announced Thunderbolt support as well. I think they will continue to do well. Those that need to work in a cross platform environment will be able to maximize their investment (or be willing to make an investment) in Thunderbolt peripherals.
“Hey, Thunderbolt rocks. I’ve been very pleased with it.
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It’s all a matter of scale. 25,000 is a lot of people, but HP’s workforce remains around 349,000. Apple is around 60,000.
I remember when people were saying similar things about Apple not that long ago. For 2002 and much of 2003, Apple stock remained in single digits. For the first part of 2003, not a single month averaged even $8.
Doomed, doomed, layoffs, layoffs, not even the Return of the King can save them, he’s still focused on Pixar, blah blah blah.
This doesn’t even count the 90s, when things were far hairier than that.
HP ain’t gonna pull an Apple. Do you think anybody ever will?
But still, HP is #10 on the 2012 Fortune 500 — Apple is #17!
First quarter this year HP reported $1.5 billion in profits on $30 billion, and while down, that was before any new workstations started shipping. While trading near the bottom of the year’s range, the stock is stable on the layoff news, and consensus still sees 30% growth by the end of the year.
Again, not Apple, but nobody is…and not bad.
They’re gonna be fine.
[Mark it on the calendar: May 23 is the first time in 2012 that I make a post veering back TOWARD the topic. Hey, statistically speaking, it had to happen some time.]
Tim Wilson
Associate Publisher, Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW Magazine
Twitter: timdoubleyou -
[Chris Harlan] “Andy, there was a two week delay with this year’s iPad. And, I agree that with older lines they most often just refresh. But I was responding to “Apple doesn’t announce hardware in advance.” I just don’t think that you can predict those kind of things from Apple.”
Fair enough, my comment was skewed to Mac releases. The reports that they will announce the new MacBook Pro at WWDC surprised me (and I remain skeptical that they will get time in the keynote).
[Chris Harlan] “If they want to tell you about Thunderbolt in advance, they will. They’ll talk about its eventual implementation long before it happens. And, they’ll drop saucy hints all over the place about things like Apple TV, for an entire year before its implemented. They just do it on their own terms, and with as little or as much info as suits them.”
They can do whatever they want, but recent history tells us they don’t care to spend hype capital on Macs they way they have been with iDevices. Thunderbolt wasn’t pre-annonuced. The alleged Apple TV set (as opposed to the “hobby” little black box) has been rumored for years but I’m not convinced it is actually coming. Apple rumors and press leaks are very different than an Apple press event.
[Chris Harlan] “What about the 17,000 well-placed mentions of “post-PC world” in the iPad release talk? I guess that could just be sales blather, but it seems to me that that was making a rather profound announcement about the general future of Apple hardware.”
I read all the post-PC talk as commentary on the industry at large, not a “profound announcement” about Apple’s product plans. Clearly the iOS side of things is their bread and butter now. The money is there and the hype is there. Conventional PCs (Macs included) are being relegated to niche status compared to the market for smart phones (soon to be all phones) and tablets. Don’t buy it? Look at the sales numbers. Smartphones sold almost twice as many units as PCs in 1Q2012. For the tasks the vast majority of users use a PC to do (web & email), a modern smartphone or tablet is a drop-in replacement. The things PCs will remain better at are niche functionalities by comparison, and that gap will only widen. When Apple says we are entering a Post-PC era, they mean everyone, not just Apple.
Best,
Andy
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